


Lights Up

by calliecaddie



Series: Reassemble [3]
Category: Cloak & Dagger (TV 2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23948173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calliecaddie/pseuds/calliecaddie
Summary: Tyrone Johnson has lived in the dark for the past five years. All he needs is a little light to show him the way home.
Series: Reassemble [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722196
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Lights Up

If there was one thing Tyrone Johnson learned, it was that he couldn’t trust the visions in his inner realm. They took the form of his greatest fears, and sometimes, that meant showing him something that he truly wanted and then taking it away. He was fooled by those visions more often than he cared to admit.

When inside, he would see himself home in New Orleans with his family as they watched him graduate and go off to an Ivy League school only for his dorm room to consist of darkness. Other times, he’d see his brother’s death loop over and over, and even in an illusion, nothing he did would ever change the outcome. 

Most days, he saw Tandy Bowen. 

The light to his darkness had gone out five years ago, and it took as much of a physical toll as it did an emotional one. Their powers intrinsically linked them together, creating a transcendent bond between the two of them. When she vanished, it felt like half of him went cold. It took him days to regain consciousness again, then weeks to be able to move on his own. Without her to balance him out, he became too weak to control his own powers. His shadows, his fears, his delusions had encased him for years, and it became harder and harder to see out of his own darkness. 

Yet he continued on the mission they’d taken on. Even with half of the population gone, he did his best to save the ones who needed help, and wandered aimlessly toward that end. But when he wasn’t trying to save the few lives still out there, he simply wallowed in his darkness. 

Tandy would visit him so terribly often in there, and she would speak sweetly to Tyrone as if they were still together. And whenever she began to feel real to Tyrone again, she would fade into dust without fail. His lingering hope would always be snuffed out. He was almost numb to it by now. Almost, but not entirely.

Now, he waited in his Darkforce, listening out for cries for help that he could answer. He did his best to ignore all the visions, closing his heart to the trauma and the fantasies that haunted him for so long. It got harder every time. As he sat within himself, he heard footsteps from behind. It wasn’t long before Tandy was beside him again. She had a veil of melancholy over her face as she settled down next to him. Tyrone made no move to look at her.

She spoke first, as she often did in his head, and her voice was low and almost raspy. “Hey, Ty.”

Tyrone simply shook his head. He stared straight ahead, struggling not to talk with another false vision.

With a heavy sigh, Tandy continued. “I know it’s… been a while. How’ve you been?”

As usual, the voice sounded too real to Tyrone. He made a deliberate move to turn away from her.

Tears filled her eyes as her other half kept ignoring her. But part of Tandy understood what Tyrone was feeling. She tried to sound casual as she spoke. “Y’know, this isn’t my first stop. I’ve kinda been… wandering in your head for a while now, catching my bearings again. I saw a lot of shit on my way here, so I… kinda got the gist of what happened.”

Tyrone shook his head again, but anger started to bubble up in his throat as he replied. “No. There’s no way you could know what I’m going through.”

Tandy could only nod, choking on her sobs as she tried to find her words again. “I guess there really isn’t, huh? I can’t even begin to imagine five years of this.” Tandy observed Tyrone’s landscape of endless void, hearing fleeting whispers of all the torment Tyrone had been subjected to. “But Ty, listen to me. I’m here now.”

“I know you’re not,” Tyrone muttered.

“Tyrone, I promise you that it’s me. You don’t have to live like this anymore, just let me help you.”

“You gotta stop,” he spat, almost laughing at what a bad joke this was becoming to him. 

“Look, you must’ve gone through so much pain, but I can help you now. We’ve just gotta get out of here.” 

Tandy reached out for Tyrone’s hand, but he snatched himself away from her and hopped to his feet.

“Enough,” he yelled, shaking the very core of his Darkforce. “You think I haven’t heard all this before!? Every waking moment, I wish that you were back with me. And my own goddamn powers keep making you come around here and tricking me into thinking that you are! I’ve been living like half a person for longer than I can remember. Let me just accept that so I can move on!”

Slowly, Tandy got back on her feet to face Tyrone. He was taller than she remembered, but that only seemed natural. “Tyrone, please--”

“No,” he interrupted, fighting back tears of his own. “I’m done falling for this. Just disappear like you always do. Stop giving me hope.”

Tandy didn’t bother hiding her sadness anymore as she felt it streak down her cheeks. But she stood her ground as she made a tentative step closer to Tyrone. He stepped back, but she continued forward.

“I can’t do that, Ty.” She held out one hand, making her palm glow with her white light. “Hope’s kinda my thing.”

Tyrone squinted as Tandy’s light shone before him. This was different. The light started to fill his inner darkness in a way that no self-made illusion had ever done before. It felt warm for once. And he could feel his heart starting to become whole again. 

His own tears came like a torrent now. He shook his head once more, never taking his eyes off Tandy, dreading the part where she goes away. “You’d better not,” he begged, doubt still nagging at his mind. “If you do, I swear to god--”

“I won’t,” Tandy assured, holding her hand out even further. Her voice was shaky, but her stance was firm. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Tyrone shivered, feeling a pulse in him that he hadn’t felt for a while. Part of him didn’t want to take Tandy’s hand. He wasn’t sure if he could stand one more bout of heartbreak. But as her light began to shine through his dark, he wanted to take a chance. He wanted to believe one more time.

He took a nervous breath and clutched his hand to hers. Her soft touch was exactly as he’d remembered.

***

Tyrone woke up in a creaky spring bed and stared up at the white, gravelly ceiling of his musty motel room. The sun peered through the blinds as it began to set over the horizon, the sky a clear and vibrant twilight orange. The TV was still on at the other side of the room and a news report started flashing on the screen. The anchor stammered constantly as she spoke, but Tyrone started to listen.

“If you’re just joining us, over the past few hours, people have been randomly appearing out of thin air all over the country and indeed the world. Several sources have confirmed that these are the victims of the Vanishing incident from five years ago. They are apparently showing up in the places they had initially disappeared. Authorities are currently trying to tabulate…”

As the news report began to fade from his ears, Tyrone flexed his right hand at his side. He felt warm, soft fingers interlaced with his own. As he turned his head, his eyes immediately locked with Tandy’s. To him, she looked like she was glowing with the sunset.

“Hey,” he said deceptively casually.

“Hi,” she muttered back.

“What are you doing here?” Tyrone asked.

“Had to come home.”

Tyrone’s lips quivered as tears started to come again. He turned back to the ceiling and sighed. “Tell me this is real. Tell me you’re real.”

Tandy cleared her throat awkwardly. “I’m pretty sure I am. Last thing I remember, we were in New Mexico, saving people from a burning bus. You collapsed and I caught you. Then it was… dark.” Her voice shook, still trying to cope with the fact that she missed more than she realized. “But it was okay.”

A dry chuckle escaped from Tyrone’s throat. “Was it really, now?”

“For me, at least. ‘Cuz even in the dark, I knew you’d be waiting for me.”

“I waited there for a long time.” The past five years of darkness began catching up to Tyrone. He thought he might sink back into it right then and there. “I wasn’t sure how much longer I could.”

But Tandy could sense that. So she tightened her grip on Tyrone’s hand, squeezing hard enough for it to hurt, ready to pull him out. Nothing could’ve made her let go of him at that moment. 

“Like I said,” she said in a low, but comforting voice. “I’m not going anywhere anymore. No way in hell.”

Hands still clasped, they both sat up with each other. To Tandy, Tyrone looked sad and tired. His face was rugged, clothes tattered. She’d spent plenty of time wading through his memories and emotions, but it wasn’t until now that she was actually looking at what the past five years had done to him. She knew she wanted to spend every day trying to heal him.

Fortunately, Tyrone was already well on his way. His body felt complete again, the darkness in him settling down as Tandy’s light returned to balance him out. Smoky wisps of his shadow danced on his hand, but they melted almost seamlessly with her glow as they held onto each other. 

Putting things back to the way they were wouldn’t be easy. But if there was one thing that Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen learned, it was that being together gave them the strength to overcome anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, we reach the end of what I have written so far. The idea is to come back to write follow-ups for the stories I've written already, but we'll see. For now, this is the tentative end of what I have for this series and I hope you enjoy. I'll probably still be posting some other non-Marvel stuff in the future, so hope you'll stick around for that!


End file.
